Sorted lists and the ability to sort lists is a growing interest because there is both an actual and perceived value of time and effort savings. For example, as the requirement to shorten business cycle times grows, the capability to quickly sort lists and be able to clearly display them in a variety of marked formats is becoming increasingly valuable to a spectrum of business users. Also, users involved in emergency, security and safety situations are constantly looking for enhancements in the presentation of both data and information of which enhanced sorting capability would play a key role.
The capability to sort lists is presently available. However, the marking capabilities which may be used to delineate the sorted lists leave much to be desired with respect to attributes. The ability to generate sorted lists in e-mail exists today. By mouse-clicking on the date or sender, a sorted list may be generated. Often, the delineation between the sorted categories is far from obvious. A list typically appears as a continuum even though the list has been sorted.
The capability to sort lists based on a hierarchy of key fields or other sort parameters is generally not currently available. For example, a first level sort may be desired by name. Then, a second level sort within the first level sort (i.e., within each grouping of names) using date as a sort parameter may be desired. Additionally, a third level sort, such as time, within the first and second levels may be desired. Clearly, the ability to accomplish many levels of sorting within easily "nested" sort parameters is attractive to a broad set of users. Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a way to sort and display lists to improve their readability and useability.